President George W. Bush's low point...

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

By now, it is hard to escape that President George W. Bush's memoir, "Decision Points" is ready for release, and the former President has been making rounds promoting the book and discussing the work on various talk shows and high profile interviews.

It is equally hard to escape that in the book, he recounts being called a racist by Kanye West as the low point in his eight year Presidency.

Now to be fair, he apparently recounts other times as difficult and confesses to having made mistakes, and to be fair, it is never pleasant to be accused of a personal flaw that you do not believe you have.

But -- seriously? Being dissed by a notoriously loud mouthed musician? Not the actual discovery that New Orleans was drowning? Not the inescapable conclusion that Saddam Hussein had no stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction? Not passing any number of milestones in Americans killed in action? Not the attacks of September 11 themselves? Not leaving office with the entire American economy spiralling into the crapper?

I haven't read the book, and I am sure that he must note those are hard times as well, but out of eight years in a highly contentious Presidency, the man stands firm in his interview with Matt Lauer that Kanye West's remarks were THE worse moment.

Is this understandable in a way that I am simply failing to understand or is this just a giant WTF moment for the entire country?

Comments

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Honestly, IMHO there's no point of the Bush Administration from the debacle of an election to his thinking that giving up golf counted as a wartime sacrifice that qualifies as a "High Point." To be fair I think the only high point of the Clinton years was having a President who could play the saxophone, as Clinton, had he been so unfortunate as to be President in a time when the shit hit the fan the way Barack Obama is, would be in worse trouble than Obama is.

As Obama had a majority of the population that voted for him, where Clinton in both terms and Bush in his first did not.

[devil-ad-vocate.livejournal.com]

Since the 'high point' of his presidency was catching a 5.5 lb. perch while on vacation, I'm not surprised about what he considers his 'low point'.

[meus-ovatio.livejournal.com]

Oh I can understand, in the way I understand how people of a certain class simply don't understand normal life or normal people. Like watching a donkey trying to empathize with a cat. Here's the thing about highly insulated and isolated Presidents: they simply have no clue what people think of them. And then something slips, and Kanye West is calling you a racist, and your entire perspective is shattered into a million pieces, because gosh, everywhere you go, everyone is so nice to you, and everyone likes you... but... some people don't? Don't like me? Does not compute.

[spaz-own-joo.livejournal.com]

with a cat.

...or an elephant?

[telemann.livejournal.com]

I'll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office." --Washington, D.C., May 12, 2008

[spaz-own-joo.livejournal.com]

I sort of get it. He may have been politically oblivious to many of his fuckups when they were happening, but hearing someone well-liked on TV blame your callous racism for a tragedy which you're most assuredly losing sleep over(I don't for a moment think GWB was indifferent about Katrina, merely ineffective) that's gotta be a "holy fuck what kind of ogre have I been" moment, whether you agree that he was actually behaving like an ogre or not.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Well, having someone who you probably believe is respected in the entertainment world say "you don't care about black people" is not evidence of callous racism, just an accusation of such. And it's not easy to combat the "you're racist" charge.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

That actually makes a lot of sense to me.

Of all the ass-chewings I recieved in the service the only one that ever really "shook me" emotionally, was being accused of "Just not giving a shit".

You can think and say what you will about him as president, but as a human being I'm inclined to think he's a lot better than people give him credit for.

[steve-potocin.livejournal.com]

HA!....compared to the current guy in the White House,Bush is beginning to look better and better.....

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

[pattyoplenty.livejournal.com]

I know what you're saying with all the big things that went on under his watch, but I think to him anyway, this was more of a personal attack on him directly and not about the crummy job he was doing. I believe he even said that himself...but the quote is not at my hands at the moment.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Is this understandable in a way that I am simply failing to understand or is this just a giant WTF moment for the entire country?

I took it like this: There are a lot of things that can go right or wrong in one's life, but if you've made a good faith effort to do what you believe is right and you've done what you can, sometimes you just move on from it. But when something happens that is ridiculously beyond the pale, it can really affect you and create a significant impact on how one views the world and your interactions with it. In typical Bush style, he completely butchers this, but I can see where he might have been going with this.

Without going into too many details, I can tell you that my "worst thing ever" is not, for example, my mother being diagnosed with Alzheimer's or losing my best friend to cancer at age 12 - it's something that comes across as very trite and ultimately meaningless in the grand scheme of things. But I can handle my mother's illness. I moved on from losing my friend 18 years ago. But that "worst thing ever" still haunts me to this day, even though most people here would probably tell me to suck it up and deal because it's nothing.

Again, only my interpretation. But if this is where he was going with it, I get it.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

Kind of in line with pattyoplenty's theory.

Its one thing to fuck up and know you fucked up, it's another to be accused of fucking up intentionally.

[ygrii-blop.livejournal.com]

It just shows how incredibly callous and disconnected he is.

[politikitty.livejournal.com]

Here's why it makes sense to me:

Before his presidency was derailed by Sept 11, he was quite honestly one of few Republicans making serious inroads appealing to minority voters. He was a brilliant campaigner, and he didn't just use that to win. He was attempting to radically change current party allegiances in key growing demographics.

Look around right now, and the best you'll see are hollow "But Lincoln!" And "Republicans voted for the Civil Rights Act too!" A lot of Republican rhetoric blames voters for being too dumb to understand the radical civil rights a conservative ideology espouses. And whatever truth there might be to that, go up to your nearest black or hispanic friend and tell them how dumb their vote was. Report your finding back to me if you manage to swing their vote in fifteen minutes or less.

But Bush was different. He was able to leverage his support for socially conservative Christian values and immigration reform to get 66% of the Hispanic vote and 27% of the black vote in Texas. To put that in perspective: people are impressed that Kit Bond regularly pulled in 15% of the black vote.

Whether it was because he's genuinely color blind, or simply realized that the Republican Party is digging it's grave ignoring the dramatic demographic shift going on, this should have been his legacy. Something that cemented fifty years of Republican rule.

Kanye West going up and calling him a racist on national tv wasn't just some loud mouth rapper. It was the moment when he realized that he lost all of that, and knowing that there are few people in the Republican party willing to pick up that hard work until it's possibly too late, is huge.

As severe as the ramifications are for drastically fucking up Katrina, imagine realizing that you are ceding the next generation or two of problems to the party you feel is poorly equipped to handle those problems.

[hey-its-michael.livejournal.com]

By far the best analysis of Bush's comment I have seen yet.

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

As a personal low point, that's completely understandable, for the reason you mention.

to be fair, it is never pleasant to be accused of a personal flaw that you do not believe you have.

[anadinboy.livejournal.com]

it was a personal attack. He didnt take 9/11 as a personal attack.

Good point!

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Instead, he took it as an attack by Saddam Hussein.

[3fgburner.livejournal.com]

"...Not the inescapable conclusion that Saddam Hussein had no stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction?"

Aside from the several thousand nerve-gas rounds that turned up in the past 7 years. Including some GB (Sarin) rounds used in IEDs.

Not to mention the 500 tons of yellowcake uranium that the Iraqis sold to a Canadian nuclear-energy company, in 2008. I bet we can guess what Saddam was planning to do with the stuff.

Ah, yes! The yellowcake...

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

... that Iraq had on hand when they were falsely accused of trying to buy more from Niger. A great deal of research has been done on the "mushroom cloud" snow job. Perhaps the lowest point in the Bush Administration was when George Tenet and his people pointed out that the intel on Iraq's WMD programs was full of holes.

[kgbman.livejournal.com]

KANYE WEST DOES NOT CARE ABOUT WHITE PEOPLE

Looking forward to a snoozy read.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

My friends think I'm crazy for wasting time reading King George's memoir, but I'm looking forward to it. Princess Palin's book gave me some tremendous insights into the mind behind the myth. I expect to encounter a similar revelation as I turn the pages of this weightless tome.

[oportet.livejournal.com]

I could understand if someone asked, and that popped into his mind first. He wrote this down though, probably read it a few times, probably had other people read it a few times (not taking blame away from Bush, but the editor should have spoken up).

There's a long list of things Bush did that I don't agree with - but the handling of Katrina isn't on it - and I was hit by it.

[mrbogey.livejournal.com]

A person's low point isn't always the worst possible thing that has happened to them. It's a cumulative issue generally.

[kinvore.livejournal.com]

Not the attacks of September 11 themselves?
Why on Earth would he regret that? It made his administration and he exploited it for every ounce that he could.

[retrofire.livejournal.com]

He just wants to be loved and is trying to tell us that he is sensitive and has feelings. He is still sickening.